The Portland Trail Blazers had rolled into San Antonio, flying high after Damian Lillard’s spectacular buzzer-beater shocked the Rockets and finally moved LaMarcus Aldridge and the Blazers out of the first round. The Blazers had enjoyed a charmed season and the most exhilarating and triumphant of moments the first round of the playoffs could offer. […] …

The Rockets’ Plan A — to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and retool the roster to make him fit — remained on hold Thursday. Indications were that they remained a longshot, but that was enough of a chance to be patient while Aldridge takes his meetings and makes his decisions. Plan B, however, has not progressed either. […] …

The Spurs are making their moves as they get ready to make their pitch to LaMarcus Aldridge. The team is trading forward Tiago Splitter to Atlanta, Yahoo Sports reported. The move frees the Spurs of the two years, $16.75 million left on Splitter’s deal. Earlier, San Antonio reached a deal on a contract extension with […] …

As unable as the Rockets’ power forwards had been to stop LaMarcus Aldridge in their playoff series last spring, eventually replaced in the Rockets’ starting lineup by since-departed center Omer Asik, Donatas Motiejunas was particularly powerless. Stuck to the Rockets’ bench through the entire six-game series, he could carefully time a few shouts of “miss […] …

Box score As if they finally were releasing seven months of pent-up disappointment and frustration or just bouncing back after consecutive home losses, the Rockets made amends the only way they could. Officially and in every other way, the latest meeting between the Rockets and Trail Blazers was not Game 7. But James Harden attacked […] …

• • • When the Rockets and the Trail Blazers met on Monday night for the first time since their playoff series last spring, a key player was missing. Forward LaMarcus Aldridge missed the game with an upper respiratory infection. Portland coach Terry Stotts said Aldridge starting feeling sick on Sunday and ended up staying […] …

After the Rockets lost the first two games to the Blazers, the focus for the team was on how to stop LaMarcus Aldridge. With each game, the Rockets have improved when it comes to slowing down Portland’s All-Star forward. In their Game 5 win on Wednesday night, the Rockets held Aldridge to eight points and […] …

James Harden’s issues scoring have not been difficult to pinpoint. His 3-point shooting has been off, going from 36.6 percent in the regular-season to 26.8 percent in the playoffs. But the huge difference has been the Blazers’ ability to take away his strength at driving and either finishing inside or drawing fouls. During the regular […] …

The Rockets stuck with their Game 1 starting lineup, the lineup that they used for 34 regular-season games with Terrence Jones at power forward. Rockets coach Kevin McHale, however, indicated he planned to try the two-centers lineup again to better defend Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge. The Rockets used Omer Asik and Dwight Howard together for […] …